Apr 28, 2012

30-year-old man marries sisters, aged 15 and 18

In a shocking incident of child marriage, a 15-year-old girl was
married off to 30-year-old man along with her 18-year-old elder sister
at Pathagutta near Yadagirigutta in Nalgonda district in the early hours
of Wednesday. The culprit, Giribabu, who is a labourer from
Lingareddypalli of Medak's Jagdevpur mandal, was detained by cops. Both
the sisters belong to a poor family from Mulugu in Warangal district.

According to Miryalaguda town sub-inspector Shankar Goud, the wedding
was performed in a local lodge at Pathagutta, 2 km from the Lakshmi
Narasimha Swamy temple at Yadagirigutta, around 1 am.

"We were informed by locals about the marriage which was attended by
nearly 20 members from each side," he told TOI. Goud said he was
planning to invoke sections of the Child Marriages Act of 2006 against
the accused.
The girls' mother Lakshmi, 60, who is a daily wager,
said her eldest daughter Jyothi is mentally unstable. "So, I got my
second daughter Maheswari married off to him as I thought he will take
care of both of them," she said. Sources said the actual plan of both
the families was to get Giribabu and Jyothi married.
But the
wedding plan took a quirky turn when Giribabu insisted on marrying
Maheswari, who is fair complexioned in comparison to Jyothi. "Then it
was decided that he would marry both of them," a police official said.
Meanwhile, the girls and the accused bride are being counselled. While
Jyoti is a student of sixth standard, Maheswari is a student of class V.